The Sunday Mail
THE moment came in the 21st minute of Zimbabwe’s 49th away African Cup of Nations qualifier and in only their third ever meeting with DR Congo in Kinshasa since Independence.
It was never going to be easy in Kinshasa, the place where a makeshift Warriors side were hammered 5-0 in 1995 when the bulk of first team players boycotted the trip after an outbreak of Ebola in the then Zaire.
And then Zimbabwe’s second away Nations Cup qualifier against DR Congo was in 2001 and it ended 2-1 in favour of the Congolese.
But against all odds, the Warriors pulled off one of the greatest upsets in African football, with Ronald “MaRoo” Pfumbidzai and skipper Knowledge Musona, the stars of that gallant 2-1 victory which earned Zimbabwe only their 14th away win in the Afcon qualifiers since 1980.
There was something special about Pfumbidzai’s left footed volley, but there was more intrigue about his “unique” celebration, in which he summoned all the players to sit down before delivering a 30-second lecture.
It’s a celebration style that hogged the limelight last weekend and inevitably made
Pfumbidzai the subject of intense mobbing from the fans when he attended last Sunday’s Harare Derby between Dynamos and his former club Caps United at Rufaro.
“What were you telling the players during that celebration Ronnie, where did you get that celebration?” scores of fans asked Pfumbidzai as they jostled for selfies with the Warriors left back.
The fans didn’t get the answer they wanted but last week on Tuesday, the roving Pfumbidzai opened up to this publication.
“Well, as for that celebration style, I just thought of it last year when I scored for
Caps United against Zamalek in a Champions League match. I never saw it anywhere, it just came to my mind just like that.
“Then last weekend when I scored in DR Congo, I just thought it was another chance to do it again. I was saying to the guys, look we have scored and vanhu ava vakuuya (these people are coming at us) so we need to work extra hard because they will attack us left, right and centre,” revealed Pfumbidzai after the
Warriors’ 1-1 draw against DR Congo at the NSS.
The Warriors’ performance in DR Congo attracted a huge crowd at the National Sports with the likes of Zim Dancehall’s man of the moment Killer T as one of the famous faces in the VIP section of the giant arena.
Pfumbidzai reckons the Warriors might have finally reconnected with their fans.
“It was good to see such a big crowd, it shows the fans appreciate what we are doing. We now need to finish off the job against Liberia and Congo so that we qualify for the 2019 Afcon finals in Cameroon,” said the Bloemfontein Celtic star.
Zimbabwe are unbeaten in Group G where they lead the log with eight points and now need at least a point from their remaining two matches to qualify for the 2019 Afcon finals.
The top two nations from each group qualify after CAF expanded the number of teams at the finals from 16 to 24.
The Warriors’ next assignment is away to Liberia on November 16 before they wrap it up against Congo at home on March 22, 2019.
“Our win in DR Congo proved we have come of age, you see football no longer has minnows. Besides we also have got an array of good players playing in
Europe and South Africa, so we are no pushovers” said Pfumbidzai.
Zimbabwe’s win in DR Congo was their first away victory against a top ranked African nation.
Their previous away wins in the Afcon qualifiers had come against Malawi (twice), Swaziland, Madagascar, Mauritius (twice), Lesotho (twice), Sudan, Eritrea (twice), Seychelles and Rwanda.
